Question

Loose housing barn is one in which

(A) Milking parlour is separately constructed

(B) Animals move about freely in a covered or partially covered yard

(C) Animals are housed and milked in same building

(D) Permits changes in herd size without any difficulty

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

• A. (A), (B), (C) and (D).
• B. (B), (C) and (D) only.
• C. (A) and (B) only.
• D. (A), (B) and (D) only.

Hint:

Compare loose housing with the older tied stall system, and notice where milking actually happens in each.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Loose housing is a dairy housing system where cows are not tied to individual stalls. Instead they move about freely inside a common yard that may be covered or partly open, resting and feeding wherever space allows.

Step 2: Check (A). Since cows are not confined to fixed milking positions in the shed, milking is done in a separate milking parlour built apart from the main resting yard. This is a defining feature of loose housing, so (A) is correct.

Step 3: Check (B). Free movement of animals within a covered or partially covered yard is the core idea of loose housing, so (B) is correct.

Step 4: Check (C). Housing and milking animals in the same building describes the conventional or stanchion barn system, where cows are tied in individual stalls and milked at that same spot. Loose housing specifically moves milking to a separate parlour, so (C) does not belong here and is incorrect.

Step 5: Check (D). Because there are no fixed individual stalls to build or remove, a loose housing barn can easily take on more or fewer animals as herd size changes over time. So (D) is correct.

Step 6: Combining the correct statements gives (A), (B) and (D) only, which is option 4.

Why the other options fail: Options 1 and 2 wrongly include (C), which actually describes the opposite, conventional system. Option 3 leaves out (D), even though flexibility in herd size is one of the well known advantages of loose housing.